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The Kano State High Court has granted an order restraining Governor Abdullahi Ganduje from implementing the breakup of Kano Emirate.

Mr Ganduje signed a law on Wednesday which created an additional four emirates, a move that was widely seen as depletion of Emir Lamido Sanusi’s influence.

The matter immediately took a political dimension with the Peoples Democratic Party members in the House saying that the additional four emirates were not properly created, accusing the All Progressives Congress majority of disregarding extant parliamentary procedures.

Two PDP House members, including the minority leader, told PREMIUM TIMES they received a court order against the new Emirates on Friday afternoon. (Premium Times)

Chapter VI, Part I, Section 131 of the 1999 Constitution states “that a person may be qualified for election of the office of the President if:
They are a citizen of Nigeria by birth.”

Atiku is not qualified to be President of Nigeria because he is not a citizen of Nigeria by birth. He does not have locus standi to sue INEC and Buhari because he is not a Nigerian citizen by birth.

Atiku became a Nigerian by referendum at the age of 15. He was born a Cameroonian – Undisuptable Fact.

Premuim Times has confirmed that at the time Atiku was born, his area known as Jeda, his tribe, Chamba were part of Northern Cameroon. This may have explained why he may have had Cameroon inscribed on his body as alleged by Nnamdi Kanu. Premium Times noted that his area of Northern Cameroon voted in a referendum to be part of Nigeria in 1961. This means that Atiku was Cameroonian for the first 15 years of his life but became a Nigerian after the 1961 referendum.

Section 25 of the 1999 constitution outlines what citizenship by birth means and provides:
the “following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth-namely-

(a) every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria;

Provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by virtue of this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grandparents was born in Nigeria.

(b) every person born in Nigeria after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria; and

(c) every person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.

(2) In this section, “the date of independence” means the 1st day of October 1960.”

Atiku was not born after the date of Independence. Atiku was born in 1946. None of Atiku’s parents or grand-parents were citizens of Nigeria in 1960 or in 1946 when he was born. None of Atiku’s parents or grandparents were born in Nigeria. Atiku is therefore not a citizen of Nigeria by birth as required by the constitution. Not being a citizen of Nigeria by birth, Atiku should not have been cleared by INEC to run for the office of President of Nigeria.

■ While some goofed, others hit the bull’s eye

Olakunle Olafioye

If the 2019 Presidential election held in the penultimate Saturday were to be decided by religious leaders, President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, would, perhaps, not have stood any chance against his main challenger and candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.

Buhari, who was the beautiful bride of the pulpit in the build up to 2015 election, surprisingly turned out to be the rejected stone during the 2019 electioneering with series of prophecies going against him.

But like the biblical rejected stone,
the president and his party had the last laugh last Wednesday when the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared him winner
of the election.

Indeed, the prophecies for the presidential election took three different dimensions. There were those who gave it outright to the president just as another group of seers favoured the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. Yet, there are those whose predictions came with a caveat. A good number of seers who fall in the latter group predicted Atiku’s victory if the poll was free and fair.

With the election results declared, the PDP and it standard bearer have threatened to challenge the outcome of the poll in court, accusing the ruling party of manipulating the exercise.

Reverend Fr. Ejike Mbaka, spiritual director, Adoration Ministry, Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), is one of the clerics who hit the bull’s eye with his predictions on Buhari’s victory. The fiery preacher took to the podium to celebrate the President’s re-election last week. Mbaka, despite falling out with the President whom he predicted would defeat former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, after his triumph at the poll, still had a favourable prediction for the retired army general.

Speaking at the 2018 cross over service, the man of God threw his weight
behind the President’s second term bid in what many saw as a volte-face from his earlier position when he was reported to have said Buhari might lose the 2019 presidential poll to Atiku, although he added that there was room for the president to improve on his performance which was the basis for his rejection.

“Among all the presidential aspirants, Buhari stands in best position in winning the presidential election,” the cleric had announced amid gleeful enumeration of what he described as his achievements during the first term.

“What happens in the Ministry of Agriculture such as massive production of rice is unprecedented in Nigeria’s agricultural history.

“In all this, we urge Nigerians to vote President Buhari in order to complete his eight years tenure and after which he will hand over to a younger candidate,” Mbaka had said during the cross-over service.

Rev Mbaka was later to firm up his prediction in favour of Buhari when this year, the vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Peter Obi, visited the Adoration Centre during a bazaar but refused to make donation. As the Catholic priest engaged the former governor of Anambra State, he said that Obi and Atiku would fail the presidential election if they continued in the way they were going.

Also in his series of predictions for the 2019 elections, popular seer and founder, INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Lagos, Primate Babatunde Elijah Ayodele predicated the defeat of the ruling APC by PDP on two major conditions.

Speaking at the unveiling of the 2018/2019 and beyond edition of the book of divine messages, “Warnings to the Nations, in July 2018, Ayodele predicted that PDP would only return to power if it fielded Senate President Bukola Saraki as its candidate for the presidential poll.

“God wants to use Saraki for something symbolic for four years. So, if PDP is desirous of winning the election they should go for him,” Ayodele had predicted.

And recently, while reacting to the postponement of the presidential poll, which he equally foretold and captured in his annual book, Ayodele also hinted that the PDP might have a chance against the ruling party if it was able to frustrate the ruling party’s rigging strategies, saying, “PDP must follow APC bomber to bomber because of the rigging methodology and rigging technicality they (APC) wants to use.”

Also the Presiding Bishop, Divine Seed of God Chapel Ministries, Ibadan, Prophet Wale Olagunju, in his prophecies for 2019, predicted that the
former Vice President would win the presidential contest amid admonition to his (Atiku) followers to observe a day of fasting and prayer against manipulation of the results by the ruling party.

According to him, “God said Buhari has become a disappointment in His sight and He has sought and found a man after His own heart to replace him.

“As a result, God said the road to Aso Rock Villa for Atiku is now very clear as his name will continue to ring bell and that many will still root for him.

“But God said all lovers of Atiku must go into one day prayer and fasting to rebuke manipulation of election result.”

Satguru Maharaji, founder One Love Family, in his own prediction, foretold President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the presidential poll.

According to him, “elections are for human beings. This is the time to call a spade a spade. Buhari is there. He has another term in the office. I don’t see Atiku, Ezekwesili, Sowore and others as president. I believe, if they will listen to me, they should not think of going to elections. They should support Buhari. Buhari is from the North, he would have spent four years by May, let him complete his second term as the tradition that a man from North will spend eight years and the South will spend eight years. All of them should wait for him to complete his second term.

“There are many reasons, unknown to many Nigerians, that will make President Buhari defeat all other candidates jostling to unseat him in Aso Rock in February.

“What the other candidates can do is to support Buhari to take Nigeria to the Promised Land. Atiku, Ezekwesili, Sowore and others should support Buhari instead of aiming to face him in the presidential election”, he declared.

A South African-based Nigerian cleric, Prophet Samuel Akinbodunse of Freedom for All Nations Outreach, during a live service at his South Africa Church, predicted the emergence of a young president at the end of the election and added that God only made Buhari the president because he wanted Nigerians to learn some lessons.

The man who accurately predicted Zuma’s exit and Mugabe’s disgrace from the seat of power, had earlier revealed that President Buhari might die if he attempted to seek a reelection.

Olagoke, who is the grand Imam of Shafaudeen in Islam worldwide, revealed that the former Vice President Atiku would be disappointed by his party, PDP, during the election.

The cleric said: “Against all odds, winners would emerge. APC as a party would have some threat and surprises, but election would tend to favour the incumbent president. The PDP on the other hand, would create scene of disappointment for its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.”

Olagoke’s prediction was said to have been made after his confinement and fasting as well as prayer for the country.

Giving his own predictions on the presidential election, founder of the Christ Deliverance Ministries Inc. (CDM) Lagos, Prophet Ekong Ituen, revealed that President Buhari would be re-elected.

“Let me start by telling Nigerians that election result will spring surprises, but in my revelation, it has been established that President Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives Congress (APC) will win the 2019 presidential election. You may not like him, but that is the truth,” he declared.

Reacting to the seeming contradictions in the prophecies and the outcome of the election, a theologian and Pastor-in-charge, Dominion Tabernacle and Prayer Assembly, Ota, Ogun State, Dr Olalekan Akinsola, noted that the turnout of event did not take anything away from the clerics whose predictions failed neither did it confer any special status on those who got it right.

According to him, “the ministry of prophecy is a delicate one because those who have the gift are prone to certain ridiculous situations which unknown to the carnally minded, may have divine purposes. Look at the case of Jonah who attempted to evade going on divine prophetic mission to Nineveh because he knew what God was capable of doing.

“God only instructed him to inform the people of the city about the impending doom, Jonah didn’t give them any condition for their preservation. But without being told, the people repented from their sinful way and they were spared. Jonah’s message didn’t come with any hope of preservation. That was one of the reasons Jonah felt angry when eventually God visited the people of Nineveh with His mercy. Does it mean God didn’t know that the people would turn a new leaf? No! He knew, He only sent Jonah so as to achieve a major divine result.

“So, the turnout of event does not take anything away from those whose prophecies didn’t go as predicted neither has made champion out of those who got it right. But the basic fact remains: God knows His true servants,” Dr Akinsola noted. (The Sun)

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Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said some governors elected under the banner of the PDP worked against him in 2015.

Jonathan in his new book, ‘My Transition Hour’ which he publicly presented in Abuja on Tuesday, also said he was confident of winning the election based on his achievements.

“We were confident that victory was ours. We were sure of the states where we would certainly have a clear lead. We knew the states which we had a 50-50 chance and finally the states we would have the required 25 per cent to satisfy the provisions of law,” he said in the book.

He added, “Obviously and with the benefit of hindsight, I have come to be aware of the intrigue that played a significant role in costing my party and I the election.

“For instance, there were governors elected under the banner of my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, who did not wholeheartedly campaign for me and adamantly refused to allow campaign posters with my picture and theirs to be printed and circulated.

“In fact, a particular first-term governor in the North had openly said his ideal scenario was to have him re-elected and my opponent elected President.

“This same governor told his aides that I would be removed in a coup. Unfortunately for him, his wishes did not come to pass and he ended up not being elected.”

Jonathan also said that there was a tremendous measure of religious pressure on members of the party in the north.

While saying it was not a fresh factor, he, however, warned that “it is one militating against entrenching the ethos of democracy. For as long as people could be persuaded or harassed into falling in line by deploying religious as an instrument of politics, our goals for promoting democracy pull prove difficult.” (Punch)

Jacobs, who also works as an insurance salesman, announced his candidacy in March 2017, eventually edging out Brad Anders by just 23 votes in the GOP race to earn the Republican nomination a year later.

Some of the issues Jacobs pushed in his campaign included keeping taxes low, improving roads and infrastructure, and keeping communities safe.

Jacobs has been a part of the WWE since 1995, making his television debut as Jerry Lawler’s private dentist, Isaac Yankem. In October 1997, he appeared as The Undertaker’s brother Kane for the first time during “Badd Blood: In Your House,” donning his signature mask and attire.

He’s held the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, ECW Championship, Intercontinental Championship, and numerous versions of the Tag Team Championship over the years with multiple partners.

Kane’s last high-profile match was his return to pay-per-view on July 15, teaming with Daniel Bryan in a losing effort to The Bludgeon Brothers for the SmackDown Tag Team titles. (The Score)

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Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has reacted to media publication credited to his deputy, Eze Madumere, alleging how he stood firmly by him in his trying moments, saying he is not duty bound to make him his successor.

Okorocha rather asked him to face his ordeals in the hands of the state Assembly.

The governor, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, said: “ It is left for the deputy governor and the motley group cheering him up against his boss, to state whether the governor or governors are duty-bound or under any obligation to make their deputies their successors. Or whether all the past governors in this country had made their deputies their successors. If the answer is in the negative, then, Madumere should count his teeth with his tongue.

“In responding to the accusation of gross misconduct raised against him, by the House of Assembly, Madumere used that opportunity to continue his aspersions on the man who has shown him avowed charity, Okorocha.

“He told the jaundiced stories of how he saved Governor Okorocha from “public disgrace” and also “carried his cross and bore his shame.”

He also talked about how he ‘stooped’ so that Okorocha may be ‘spared of the humiliation’ of getting incarcerated.”

The governor said in all these, Madumere could only talk about the minor fallouts of the 1999 election and, perhaps, the incident that was also part of the 2011 election when he (Okorocha) ran on the ticket of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and defeated the incumbent, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, of the PDP.

“All the same, it is the height of pettiness for the number two citizen of the state to begin to talk about the imaginary inconveniences he claimed he experienced during the political outings of his benefactor, but, carefully skipped mentioning the avalanche of favours, benefits, patronages and enviable upliftment he has enjoyed all these years,” Okorocha said.

Stressing on his kind gestures towards his deputy Okorocha said: “He had returned from America a long time ago, and was in Nigeria all the while. And he should be Christian enough to admit that he has remained under the mentorship and employment of Governor Okorocha.

“He also refused to state in his publication that he has benefitted from the political successes of Governor Okorocha more than any other person.” (The Sun)

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said those who mismanaged Nigeria’s economy in the past, through fraudulent electricity projects and misuse of revenue earnings from oil, had no love for the country.

The president stated this when he received members of the Buhari Support Organisations (BSO) led by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

President Buhari urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and ensure that only ‘‘people of conscience are in-charge of governance at all levels’’, as the nation prepared for general elections in 2019.

He said: ‘‘I challenge anybody to check from Europe, America and Asia; between 1999 and 2014, Nigeria was producing 2.1 million barrels of crude oil per day at an average cost of 100 dollars per barrel and it went up to 143 dollars.

‘‘When we came it collapsed to between 37 and 38 dollars and later was oscillating between 40 and 50 dollars.

‘‘I went to the CBN Governor, with my cap in my hand, and asked if we had savings. He told me we had only debts, no savings. Some of the roads were not repaired since the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) days.

‘‘I don’t care the opinion you have about Abacha but I agreed to work with him and we constructed roads from Abuja to Port Harcourt, Benin to Onitsha and so on. We also touched education and health institutions.

‘‘One of the former Heads of State was bragging that he spent more than 15 billion dollars on power in Nigeria. Where is the power?’’ the President said.

On the mismanagement of the economy by previous administrations, President Buhari noted that the perpetrators lacked imagination and plans for the development of the nation.

‘‘Sometimes, I wonder about those who can afford to send their children abroad for studies and yet continue to sabotage the economy, I wonder what kind of Nigeria they want their children to return to and work. There is a lot of lack of imagination.

‘‘If you are working for the country, then you shouldn’t be misappropriating and misapplying public funds the way people did,’’ he said.

The President noted that under his watch, the 2016 and 2017 budgets recorded the highest appropriation and releases in capital projects, with over N2.8 trillion disbursements in two years.

The President urged Nigerians to reject those bent on dividing the country along religious and ethnic lines, warning that “they do not mean well for the country.

‘‘I have said severally that we do not have any other country than Nigeria and we will remain here and salvage it together.

‘‘We have nothing to regret. Absolutely nothing. God has given Nigeria everything. We are rich in human and material resources. Let us keep on praying to God to put people of conscience in-charge at all levels.’’

On the activities of the support group, President Buhari apologised for not rallying them before announcing his intention to seek re-election in 2019 during a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress on April 9, 2018.

He thanked members of the group for their resolute support to him as a Presidential candidate in 2015 and all through his term in office, adding that their voluntary sacrifices were an indication of their trust and belief in the great future of the country.

In his remarks, Ali said the group and majority of Nigerians are passionate about a second-term for President Buhari because of his integrity, honesty, love and patriotism.

He noted that President Buhari had entrenched fiscal discipline and prudent management of resources, improved the nation’s security and delivered on his promise to revamp agriculture, as a major revenue earner for the country.